Resting on the Promises

It seems astonishing to the layperson that anybody would go to the extremes René Descartes went to simply to discover that he existed. What could be more self-evident to a conscious being than one’s own self-consciousness?

But Descartes was not on a fool’s errand. In a world of sophisticated skepticism, he sought certainty for something that could serve as a foundation for much, much more. He moved from the certitude of self-consciousness to the certitude of the existence of God, no small matter for the doubt-ridden believer. Descartes and others like him understood that to prove the existence of God is prior to affirming the trustworthiness of Scripture and the birth and work of the person of Christ.

The most important certainty we can ever have is the foundational certainty of the existence of God. It was this matter that prompted Jonathan Edwards to declare, “Nothing is more certain than that there must be an unmade and unlimited being.”

On this bedrock of certainty rest the promises of that unmade, unlimited Being. On these promises we rest our faith. Doubting served Descartes well, but Edwards knew that, ultimately, it is dubious to doubt the indubitable.

2 Peter 1:4: “[We] have been given … exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

2 Corinthians 1:20: “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

2 Corinthians 7:1: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”